Richard Mason Hancock (November 22, 1832 – June 5, 1899) was a carpenter and shop foreman and civil rights activist in the American Northeast and Chicago.

When he was thirteen he was apprenticed as a carpenter under his father, William H. Hancock[2] and under builder Uriah Sandy.

[2] As a young adult he moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where he was employed at Atwater & Treat and then Doolittle & Company, both white firms.

Instead, Gates hired new pattern-makers to fill the places of the strikers and Hancock continued his role as foreman.

[8] On 26 April 1881 in Cincinnati, Ohio, he married Gertrude E. Gross (nee Taylor),[9] widow of the Rev.

He was an active republican[13] and vice-president of the Provident Hospital and Training School for African-Americans in Chicago[14] Mason was a freemason and a member of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church.